Elysium is born from an idea based around three simple and pure concepts: Balance, Truth and Love. If you understand and live by these three things then you already are what Elysium strives to achieve.
In a nutshell we aim to:
Help the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world by building new, sustainable economies from scratch based around organic farming and renewable energy from solar, wind and wave power.
Educate the world as to who actually is rich and poor.
Help people from all countries to understand that the greatest gift we can give to ourselves is to give to others.
Help charities to be more trustworthy to donors by being more transparent and making greater efforts to report back to people on what has specifically been done with their money, including where possible, photos and videos of the people being helped.
Champion the most effective, efficient and genuinely charitable organisations around the world and particularly encourage direct donations to native organisations which have been appropriately screened to ensure transparency, effectiveness, efficiency and trustworthiness.
Show people that the problems of this world are not unsolvable and to understand that doing a little to help is ALWAYS better than doing nothing. If everyone does a little it adds up to a massive amount.
Connect the world with genuine love and compassion between all who share our beautiful planet.
So if you live on more than $2 a day whether you work for a living or not YOU are richer than 50% of the people who you share this planet with! If you live on more than US$10 per day then you are richer than 80% of the population of Earth! If you don''t believe me check the facts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty
Central African Republic (CAR)
Find your country on the list at the link above (table on the left side) and check what population of YOUR country lives on LESS THAN US$2 PER DAY. People browsing the list may be surprised to see that countries which probably don''t consider themselves to be among the wealthiest in the world like Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and many more have LESS than 2% of their populations living on less than $2 per day.
You might be thinking at this point, ''Ok that''s fine- but there are people in MY country living in slum conditions and scraping by for survival''. You''d be right. The National Poverty Line (check the link above again and look at the right table) is a completely different thing. For example if it were to cost US$1 for a loaf of bread in one country and only $0.10 in another then someone living on $2 a day in the second country would be able to buy 10 times more bread than the first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932008_world_food_price_crisis.
Ok, so what has this got to do with Elysium? First of all remember one of our aims is Truth and to highlight simple facts and truths to today''s world so that we may be able to think twice about whether we are ''rich'' or not, what ''rich'' means and what good $2 from one country can do in another. For a great series of articles about causes of global poverty visit:
Charities themselves are often cumbersome and inefficient- with the directors of many of the world''s biggest and most famous charities commanding salaries of more than US $250,000 each year. Please note that this does not mean we should not support the world''s largest charities- we should, but we should also all scrutinise the efficiency with which these vital charities work and ensure that they do their work and use their vast power, budgets and influence to effect far more good than they currently achieve.
Elysium is founded from a simple principle of guaranteeing that if you donate any money through Elysium 100% of the money you donate will go to the EXACT PERSON, school, organisation or charity who you want to help (yes we DO work directly with GOOD, efficient and non-corrupt charities). We have created a system of on the ground charities, individual people, groups and contacts who ensure we know exactly how much it will cost to; build a well; feed a child for a year; guarantee an orphan can be adopted and raised safely by a loving family and be sent to school until they are an adult and many other potential scenarios. You can view the exact, specific cases which we are raising money for here now.
We can guarantee that 100% of the money you donate goes directly where you want it simply because all of the expenses of running Elysium are paid for privately by us. It doesn''t cost a huge amount as most of it is online and 100% of the people who work for Elysium do so purely and simply out of the kindness of their hearts. They are not paid a penny. That is REAL generosity and charity for you. That''s what charity means! Elysium never has and never will have any paid members of staff. Everyone who helps Elysium''s work does so simply because they agree with what we are trying to achieve. Balance, Truth and Love for all on our planet and nothing more or less than that.
A fisherman and his wife on the island of Thetkethaung, Myanmar
If you would like to make a donation or even better get involved hands on with any of our projects around the world please do not hesitate to contact us any time. We know that there is nothing more fulfilling in this life than knowing that YOU are responsible for saving a child''s life and guaranteeing their well-being for life while you can watch them grow and are kept up to date with their progress. We can even potentially help arrange for you to visit the person or people you are helping in person. How great would that be for your next trip away? Much more fulfilling than sitting on yet another beach for a week I can tell you that. Plus traveling in the poorest countries in the world is the best possible value and you will surely witness the incredible kindness, generosity, appreciation and warmth which is so common among the world''s poorest. In this way you can feel the justice of being a good and generous person directly while learning an incalculable amount about philosophy, life and love.
Best wishes to one and all around the world. Remember we all share one planet and are all one race- the human race. Let''s look after each other as well as we can- at home and abroad and imagine the world we could create :D
Roughly 50% of the population of our planet live on less than US$2 each day! (
